President Turk Visits Elder Hurley and Elder Meza

Hurley and Meza...

 When the President was out with Elder Hurley and Elder Meza

they taught several lessons, made several contacts,

visited the Bishop's family and the Pesionista

and saw their apartment...

 They also visited with Kevin who is fifteen and taught him another lesson.

He will be baptized tomorrow...

 And then they went to a family's home who have two sons serving missions.

When they left on their missions neither one of their parents

were members of the church.

Their parents had never been married.

The mother wanted in the worst way to get baptized.

She had attended church for over a year.

She finally went to her husband and said

"I love you

but I have to get baptized.

That means you either marry me or you will have to leave."

 He married her and we went to her baptism

several months ago.

The sons were so happy.

The Father has taken the lessons but hasn't been able

to quit drinking.

The President talked to this Father.

He hadn't been drinking for a few weeks.

He wanted to get baptized but was afraid

he would fall.

President Turk gave him a blessing.

He talked to him about baptism

and

today he passed his interview for baptism.

Tomorrow

the President is baptizing him.

The missionary sons are going to return 

from their missions 

with both parents baptized while they were serving.

Oh Happy Day!

January 23, 2012 John 14:12

Hey family family,

Hope you`re all doin swell. This week was excellent, we worked way hard, and had 36 lessons in total (not including less actives and recent converts and members). Teaching some really great people. 

The scripture of the week is John 14:12. 

 12 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that ^abelieveth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I ^bgo unto my ^cFather.

This week was really good. I am glad you saw the picture on the blog of the celebration we had of sister turk. President turk and his assistants came for our leadership meeting, and after president turk personally attended my district meeting. It was cool to have president there in my district meeting, which turned out really well, cuz I had planned the details beforehand. He congratulated me after and said was proud of my work as district leader. That was cool to hear. Meanwhile sister turk took our keys to check our rooms. She realized how small and old our room was haha so we might be changing. I felt kind of bad she had to do that on her birthday , especially cuz we live up four flights of stairs, and our room could have been cleaner. I had a crazy baptismal interview. Those are always fun to do. You never know what people are going to confess to you. Our investigator kevin also had his baptismal interview saturday and passed, and he will be baptized this saturday. He is 15, and he likes break dance. He is was awesome though. This week we visited Esthefany, that girl that told us her parents wouldn`t let us go to her house anymore, We just felt to go one day anyways and offer service to her mom, Her mom turned out to be really cool, and accepted us and we are now visiting her mom too. Way awesome to be teaching her again. also two referals from kevin, andres and cristian we have been teaching. andres is 21 and cristian is 18. They are way cool and have desires to follow christ also. I had the chance to play some guitar with them last monday for a short time.
They attended a ward activity saturday which turned out way good. and cristian attended church yesterday and has a baptismal date for the 4th of february. It is so good to hear from you all and to hear courts had a good time at preference. I love always hearing your storys. Yes mom there is seminary here, just in the church, nothing like seminary in our town haha. but I am really happy and enjoying the mission. So cool to hear that the shawn is helping the missionarys. It is way awesome for missionaries to receive reference from member, because you start the teaching with some confidence from them already. I love you guys so much. have the best week of your life. I should be sending you all my pictures today. yeah all of them. im putting them on a usb for me to have too. LOve you much

Elder Hurley

January 16, 2012 2 Nephi 9:18

Hey fam fam

love love your letters. Courtney gave me 2 letters. she wins. haha. i always love your letters mom and dad. always. The scripture of the week is 2 Nephi 9:18. I like it. Its for you guys. 

18 But, behold, the ^arighteous, the ^bsaints of the Holy One of Israel, they who have believed in the Holy One of Israel, they who have endured the ^ccrosses of the world, and despised the shame of it, they shall ^dinherit the ^ekingdom of God, which was prepared for them ^ffrom the foundation of the world, and their ^gjoy shall be full^hforever.

This week was kind of really sad, and good. first sad, satan will do everything he can to impede baptism, good, cuz we found lots of new prepared people. Hma Esthefany that we have been teaching, really opened up this week. She has really felt herself grow closer to the church and to God. On saturday she went to attend a baptism from some sisters in my district. She told us there that her parents are letting us teach her anymore in her house. Her dad is sayin, after she gets in to college in a few months she can do what she wants. But gosh she had a baptismal date for this saturday, wants to be baptized, and has a great testimony. It is just way hard for her cuz her parents are the opposite of supporting it, and she has to obey them, cuz she needs a place to stay. way hard, but we are going to try to offer service to her mom and do everything we can to talk with them. Our other date for this saturday got extended a week, cuz kevin couldn`t get to church by 8 yesterday, and he has to attend one more time before baptism. so kinda sad. but we found some other people that have been prepare by the lord, and i feel like we are going to start baptizing constantly, i just have to keep my faith in the lord. Being district leader carries lots of responsibilites, especially being over 4 sisters. but we had our first district meeting this last week, and it went really well. I have sister bell, sister gallagillos, sister sanchez, and sister eddings, two from utah, one from chile, and one from lima. they are all awesome and we are improving as a district. Today as a zone we went to this mall place. I felt like I was in the united states. ran into some members from utah randomly there. ate chinese food for the first time in forever. Sounds like you guys are doing good. I want you guys to attach some pictures in the emails if you can, maybe recent pics of jett, or the baptizm of delainey. This week I got some mail that came from the kaps, from the ward primary, and from mama. I read the whole 8 page talk from president tad r callister. and it was SOOO good. I wish every missionary could read it. i want to translate it and share it here haha. but 8 pages... I got to work with one of the asistants to the president this week, which was  really awesome. I also try to read the conference talks every day. There is so much you miss the first time around when you watch it through television. I exort you all to read the talk ^dare to stand alone^ by president monson, especially courtney, and those in their youth. sorry about the pictures. IM going to send you guys the sd card next monday. Im starting to forget some english. I love you guys so so much and thanks for your examples. Good luck dad with your missionary quest. use the book of mormon a lot with them. especially in jacob 1-4. where it talks about polygamy. Love you all so much have the best week of your life

Elder HUrley

January 9, 2012 John 14:12

Dear Family,
This week was a really great week for me and I feel like all my hard work is starting to pay off a little. I felt the spirit so so strong as I read the conversion story of TJ and Delainey. I am so so so so so happy for this. en serio. I have always looked up and loved TJ. It was great to hear the story of his friend austin. We hung out with austin various times before his mission and I knew him pretty well (Winro with his fro back in those days) If you guys could send me pictures of the baptism that would be awesome. 
The scripture of the week is john 14:12. 
 12 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that ^abelieveth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I ^bgo unto my ^cFather.
That says if we truly believe in Jesus Christ, we will do the works that he does. This has helped me a lot this week because everyone here in Peru says they believe in christ, but almost no one does the works that he does.  I had a really good week, we have two baptismal dates for the 21 of January. the first is Sister Esthefany, she is 18 years old and comes from a really catholic family, luckily she is of age that she doesn`t need permission from her mom, but her niece only is 15 years, so she can`t be baptized without the permission, but we are visiting them a lot and sister stefany attended church yesterday. She said she prayed the night before church and asked god if the church was right, to help her get up in the morning to go to church. She set her alarm and everything, she woke up without any problems yesterday before her alarm went off. (church starts at 8 am here) she said it was interesting because the day before she couldn`t wake up early even with her alarm. She is doing well, has some doubts, but everyone does. Yesterday we had a spiritual experience, and the end she asked us, if we really truly believed totally all that we were teaching her about the church, or if we were lying a little. and elder meza bore his testimony SO strong about the book of mormon saying no man could write that book. and That it is all true, and it was the first time id seen him cry. and the spirit was so strong, esthefany was crying too. and it is so true what dad said, that the spirit is what converts. There is a quote from preach my gospel that says that too, that without the spirit we will never convert, no matter what talent or ability we have. also for the 21 is Kevin. He is a 15 almost 16 year old kid who looks up to us a lot, we always teach him and his friends on the street. he has so much faith and believes all we are teaching him, just has had troubles waking up to get to church. but yesterday he did it with our help. We have a lot of other people that have accepted to prepare for baptism too, and i feel like we are going to have a lot of success this month and transfer. Being district leader is good, hard at times but good. Last week we had a meeting for only leaders in the mission. I learned so much and felt the spirit so strong that day. I think there are pictures on the blog. I am so happy that you guys are progressing more and more in the gospel, cuz what mom said was true, that we are eith progressing or decreasing in our testimony, I hope you guys remember to pray every day as a family, or find the time, i know there is time. I sent some pictures of my christmas, one lunch we had with cebiche (my pensionista made it with chicken, cuz we cant have it with fish) and of our bubble gum blowing contest we had with the gum you guys sent me. I won.  I am learning more and more and getting better at following the spirit in every part of my life. The  church is the only true church on the face of the earth. love all serve all
Elder Hurley

January 2, 2012 Revelations 20:12-13

Hey fam

Only have 5 minutes to write. scripture of the week is Revelations 20:12-13.

12 And I saw the ^adead, small and great, ^bstand before God; and the ^cbooks were opened: and another book was opened, which isthe ^dbook of life: and the dead were ^ejudged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their ^fworks.
 13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and ^adeath and^bhell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
New years was so fun. went to bed at 10 30 and woke up at 6 30. I have never seen so much drinking in all of my life. The people just party the whole night drinking, and it continued all the next day. just everyone was drunk wandering around the streets. We are progressing a ton here in Trujillo. we are going to have lots of success this change Im sure of it. we have a lot of people preparing for baptism. That is so so so amazing that Delainy is getting baptized and tj is going to do it. Being district leader has lots of responsibilitiys, i do baptismal interviews for my zone leaders and my district. had two this past week. First time I've interviewed someone in my life. I'm growing and learning a ton though. Church was a bummer with new years, we had 8 people committed, called them all saturday night, and passed there houses in the morning sunday morning, no one came. my old district leader is now my zone leader, elder Wilkinson hes the man. I know without doubt the Joseph smith was a real prophet of God. there are 6 of us in my district and 4 of them are sister missionaries. I will tell you more about my investigators next week, im so sorry to make this short, but i had other resbonsibilities to do during this time. just know I love you guys so much and you are lucky for the family you have, and just strengthen what you have. LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU

Elder Hurley

December 27, 2011 Alma 34;33-37

Hey wonderfull family!

it was a joy talking with you guys on sunday. bet your not expecting this letter today. when we have our changes (transfers, every 6 weeks) our p day is on tuesday.

The scripture of the week is alma 34:33-37.

33 And now, as I said unto you before, as ye have had so many^awitnesses, therefore, I beseech of you that ye do not^bprocrastinate the day of your ^crepentance until the end; for after this day of life, which is given us to prepare for eternity, behold, if we do not improve our time while in this life, then cometh the^dnight of ^edarkness wherein there can be no labor performed.
 34 Ye cannot say, when ye are brought to that awful ^acrisis, that I will repent, that I will return to my God. Nay, ye cannot say this; for that same spirit which doth ^bpossess your bodies at the time that ye go out of this life, that same spirit will have power to possess your body in that eternal world.

35 For behold, if ye have procrastinated the day of your repentance even until death, behold, ye have become ^asubjected to the spirit of the devil, and he doth ^bseal you his; therefore, the Spirit of the Lord hath withdrawn from you, and hath no place in you, and the devil hath all power over you; and this is the final state of the wicked. 

36 And this I know, because the Lord hath said he dwelleth not in^aunholy temples, but in the ^bhearts of the ^crighteous doth he dwell; yea, and he has also said that the righteous shall sit down in his kingdom, to go no more out; but their garments should be made white through the ^dblood of the Lamb.

 37 And now, my beloved brethren, I desire that ye should remember these things, and that ye should ^awork out your salvation with fear before God, and that ye should no more deny the coming of Christ;

We have been focusing more on teaching faith and repentance, in order to help people for baptism. We have a possible baptism this friday, and two other investigators with baptismal dates. We are just going to keep pushing hard this change and doing all we can. Yesterday they called me, and I was made district leader here. So now I am district leader and training at the same time.  Ill tell you more about my district next week. lots of responsibilities, but just got to do my absolute best. changes are always hard, cuz you get to love the people your working with so much in your district and zone,  then they just leave somewhere else and you might not see them again your whole mission haha. but then you always form new relationships in the next change. (transfers they call changes here). That is cool that dad made a video and yall got spoiled. not sure if i can watch it, but if you want you can send a copy in the next package or something I got way more spoiled than yall. best christmas ever for real. To answer mamas questions, yeah we just had an hour of church, president Turk wanted us to just visit members and less actives, so we did that. Yes I got the piano Cd. I think I love that the most. because it is all hmyns, and i can listen to hymns any day. Sorry skype didn`t work, ill plan that better for mothers day, getting a cabana that has headphones and speakers  in one. but i really loved just seeing you and hearing you. It was good it didn`t work in the beginging cuz i could speak english haha i was just excited to hear you guys so much i just started replying in spanish, but you couldn`t hear me anyways which is good haha. I was blessed with the best family on earth. I hope blaine and jung sun are doing great. read mosiah 3 with them, like i invited all you guys to do on the phone. Good to hear alisa is doing good too. We have a lot of people that would get baptized, but they can`t because they are not married in living in the same place.  I really did love all your letters. especially whit and the ukulele, and I ended with courts`letter. In that moment I just had to get on my knees and thank God for what he has given me. I love you guys so much and my love for you has grown even more being away from you. Today we went as our last zone activity to a big soccer field and played soccer. Way fun. I love the mission, And i just have to be more patient and love the people with all my heart like I love you guys.

Elder Hurley